PeterPeter wrote:
Following on from the other thread about ideal game time (summary: better to get lots of experience at 10 seconds per move than over-think and aim for perfect play), I am finding that the further I get into each game, the longer each move takes.
It seems that the more stones there are on the board, the more time I need to spend checking the status of all my groups, to ensure that a recent move by my opponent has not endangered them in some way.
Particularly in the endgame, it feels like I need to re-calculate every potential move on every turn, to establish which is the biggest move to play.
When my groups get bigger, as they tend to do at the end, I become paranoid about losing one due to not noticing that something seemingly unimportant has happened elsewhere on the board.
This is also the time at which my poor old brain gets tired.
Is this idea of needing longer as the board fills up common among players?
If not, any tips for dealing with when things become more critical and complicated towards the end of the game?
It seems that the more stones there are on the board, the more time I need to spend checking the status of all my groups, to ensure that a recent move by my opponent has not endangered them in some way.
Particularly in the endgame, it feels like I need to re-calculate every potential move on every turn, to establish which is the biggest move to play.
When my groups get bigger, as they tend to do at the end, I become paranoid about losing one due to not noticing that something seemingly unimportant has happened elsewhere on the board.
This is also the time at which my poor old brain gets tired.
Is this idea of needing longer as the board fills up common among players?
If not, any tips for dealing with when things become more critical and complicated towards the end of the game?
Play on smaller boards. They fill up sooner.
As a beginner, you are right to take care at the end of the game. The problem can be summed up in one phrase: shortage of liberties.
I am serious about playing on small boards. (Even though I did not do that. More below.) Shortage of liberties is more acute on small boards.
I would advise not playing (much) on boards larger than 9x9 until you can play the endgame quickly, making most endgame moves in 5 sec. or less. (Sometimes you may have to think for a minute or two, though. )Even 9 kyus and 10 kyus have trouble with shortage of liberties. And even 5 kyus occasionally end play when they have a good move somewhere because of shortage of liberties or life and death.
Most of the time, the relative shortage of liberties at the end of the game only requires being careful and seizing opportunities when your opponent is not careful. Sometimes it involves tesuji.
I have always played the endgame quickly. Why? Even when I was a beginner, trying to read out local situations, my early reading paid off later in the game. I was aware of the shortage of liberties to come.
Now, everybody is different, and I am not recommending that you do what I did. You are taking care when the shortage of liberties looms large. Very good.
Keep it up. Look at it this way. The problems with shortage of liberties at the end of the game are much easier, as a rule, than the L group or the J group or a lot of other tsumego problems.
They make good practice.